Transform Anxiety to Resilience with Dr. Traci Potterf How Humans Heal

In this illuminating conversation, I had the pleasure of speaking with functional medicine practitioner Dr. Traci Potterf about the power of holistic healing for anxiety. She and I have both been helping people with anxiety and burnout in general for many years, so this was a perfect opportunity to see how our approaches align and overlap.
Dr. Traci Potterf holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology and is a functional medicine practitioner with extensive training in mind-body therapies. She describes herself as an "anxiety detective" helping clients get to the root causes of anxiety.
Dr. Traci teaches people to understand anxiety as the body's cry for help, not a personal failing or something you must accept lifelong. Her multifaceted, individualized programs help clients address anxiety through nutrition, lifestyle “makeovers”, stress resilience practices, and nervous system healing.
After healing her own health challenges, Dr. Traci was inspired to support others on their journey to wellness. She is passionate about illuminating the path to joy, meaning, and possibility by merging ancient wisdom, emerging science, and the magic inherent in every human.
Reframing Anxiety as a Health Messenger
Anxiety exists on a spectrum, ranging from tension and muscle tightness to full-blown panic attacks. At the physical level, symptoms may include jaw clenching, gut issues like constipation or loose stools, headaches, insomnia, hormone imbalances, heart palpitations, and more.
Mentally, anxiety manifests as excessive worry about hypothetical future scenarios, catastrophizing, ruminating on negative possibilities, and feelings of being completely overwhelmed.
Our conventional medical system has wrongly pathologized anxiety as a genetic brain defect requiring medication. But humans lived for thousands of years without widespread anxiety disorders. Anxiety is simply the body's smoke alarm signaling that something is out of balance in the inner or outer terrain. The nervous system is saying "ouch" in the only way it knows how.
Rather than immediately medicating to silence the nervous system's signals, we must approach anxiety as a teacher. It provides an opportunity to tune into the body's wisdom and discover what requires healing. Trying to ignore or override anxiety without addressing the root issues provoking it is like disabling a smoke detector while your house burns down.
How Modern Life Impacts Our Nervous System
With our epidemic of chronic stress and toxicity in the modern world, most people now live with some level of anxiety. Here are several contributing factors:
· Diet high in processed foods, sugars, chemicals and industrial seed oils provokes inflammation throughout the body and brain. This impairs cellular functioning, hormone regulation, detox processes, and neurotransmitter balance.
· Dehydration prevents optimal delivery of nutrients and removal of toxins. Lack of structured, energized water also reduces the voltage that powers energy flow.
· Toxins like heavy metals, mold, infections from pathogens like Lyme, and EMFs directly disrupt the nervous system. They derail neurotransmitters and damage tissues.
· Trapped emotions and unprocessed pain or trauma from the past remain stuck in the nervous system and bodily tissues if never addressed. This perpetual loop feeds anxiety.
· Sleep deprivation and constant overstimulation from electronics disrupt natural biorhythms needed for health like cleansing cycles. This stresses physiology.
· Negative thought patterns like excessive self-judgment keep us feeling unsafe and on high alert. The mind perceives threats everywhere.
· Social isolation and lack of community fails to meet our core human needs for belonging and intimate connection. Lack of oxytocin and bonding creates distress.
· Suppression of innate human needs for pleasure, joy, play, and meaning leads to loss of purpose. Without a felt sense of meaning, anxiety brews.
Even with genetic susceptib